Hi jroff,
Okay! I can take a hint!
Seems the biggest hurdle is to locate willing buyers of a mid-priced
service that takes _time_ to produce... You'll need to find a way to
rub sholders with potental clients. And you need a LARGE inventory of
potential clients. Think of the "Funnel Theory" in sales... Where do
people that need a program developed congregate and discuss their
woes?
I think a slight change of focus would help. You say you're busy. If
you're busy it's a good thing, but you are also looking for clients.
Finding clients is of paramount importance. In the funnel theory, for
every 100 that go in the top of the funnel, only 2-3 drop into your
lap. Activities that will lead to finding clients need to be
_moved_up_ on the list of importance.
I am just brainstorming here so I might end up with more than 10
ideas. I am also not going to recommend any of the "get-rich-quick"
type websites for marketing software --or any of the books, tapes and
CD's that profess to be able to sell 1,000,000 copies of your program
in 60 days.
10 IDEAS
1) Bid for projects at eLance, and similar sites. Reference:
http://www.elance.com ...they have a
registration/subscription/verification process to become a service
provider. The people that post projects are pre-qualified as well. It
is not entirely free to subscribe, it's member based, but it is
affordable. They have a "Software and Technology Projects" section,
where over 1,093 _different projects_ needing a developer have been
posted IN THE LAST WEEK. Reference:
http://www.elance.com/c/rfp/main/rfpmkt.pl?catId=10182
Here's an elance success story:
http://www.elance.com/c/static/main/displayhtml.pl?file=cs_adam5son.html&rid=Q1J
Be sure to read the section there about "Winning Business on Elance
Online"
Another site, MediaVue, has a similar concept but geared more toward
what you want. Here's their "Free-lancers Sign-up Page" --no guarantee
on this one, as opposed to eLance where I personally know a couple
freelancers that do very well.
http://www.mediavue.net/freelancers.php
Go to the Main page and poke around.
Here's another site that assists software developers in finding work:
SMEsource
http://www.smesource.com/Developers/
..."Developers: List your company or services for free. Whether you're
a freelance developer or large firm, promote your company and services
at no charge..."
There are literally dozens, if not hundreds of sites like these. Ask
Google Answers to locate them. Use these as examples in your question.
2) Call ALL past and present customers and ask for referrals. Call
them, and offer a finders fee (or discount) for referrals that become
sales. If those leads are not interested, ask THEM for referrals. Tell
everyone in your day and everyone you meet what you do and that you
are taking new clients (like at the grocery store, dry-cleaners), Give
business cards away at every turn. Eat, sleep and breathe the "find
new clients" mentality. If all you do is focused on gaining new
clients, they WILL come.
3) License your generic, non-proprietary software to be sold in a
group, IE: on a freeware/shareware CD.
4) Buy a targeted list (they're available for everything) of potential
clients based on your specific criteria, and create a spectacular
salesletter, follow up on the phone 7 days after mailing. Be sure to
offer a free telephone consultation with an 800 number. You can get
800 numbers on the Internet for next to nothing.
5) Although it sounds silly to state the obvious, the single best
piece of marketing advice I can offer is this: Critically examine what
has worked for you in the past. Choose the method that has gained the
best results in the past. DO MORE OF THAT. A lot more.
6) Market your website aggressively. Determine how a person needing
your services would do an Internet keyword search for you, and adjust
your metatags and web site accordingly. For instance, I entered "need
a developer" [with the quotes] into Google's main search page and came
up 1,070 results. All the results on the first page of results [50 for
me] are very similar to you. Reference the results: [
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22need+a+developer%22
]. Look at the metatags of the top ten results and get some ideas.
Make changes. Go through the answered questions here at Google
Answers, specifically the answered questions pertaining to "Page
Rank", and use as many of the ideas you have time for. This will move
your web site up in the list of results.
Make sure you have a tracking service so you know where people are
clicking FROM to get to you. Then, as with #5, find and advertise on
more sites similar to wherever your click-throughs are coming from...
Also, note #15 below pertains to your web site.
There are some seriously great researchers here with WAY MORE
knowledge that I have about how to market your site and get it out
there in front of people.
7) Start an affiliate program. I have no idea if there's such an
animal for developers, but hey, maybe THIS is an original idea. At the
very least, design banner ads for yourself and ask your customers to
place them on their web sites. The compensation should match the
finders fee.
8) Find forums where developers discuss jobs and get ideas where to
find clients, and what works for others.
www.developers.com and .net likely have some sort of message boards.
9) Isolate 2 or 3 large-ish companies you would like to sell services
to, IN YOUR CITY, and determine the employees quitting time.
Concurrently, locate the 2 nearest watering holes to their offices.
Make a point to be there after [their] quitting time at least twice a
week. Be friendly, listen, take business cards... This technique takes
persistance, they will hire you after you are a regular.
10) The competition knows where to find clients. There is two methods
to mine their information. Don't call one or two companies. Call all
the competing companies listed in your yellow pages:
a) Call, be sure you are speaking to a decision maker, ask if they
are out-sourcing at all. If not, ask for their overflow. Often times
they will turn down work not specifically suited to them, ask them to
refer you, for the same finders fee. This works well if you are not
actually developing the same type of software.
b) Do a "disguised market analysis". This is effective but takes
some time to develop. Don't do this at the same time you ask for
overflow, obviously... Disguised is exactly that. You ask certain
questions designed to elicit information that would not be freely
given, under disguised _pretenses_.
11) Barter. Become a member of BX or a similar barter club. Not so
much because you want to barter (but you must barter at least some),
but because it pts you in touch with folks looking for services you
provide. Think networking and referrals here.
BXInsider
http://www.bxinsider.com/
12) Use Google Answers to the fullest. We can locate Internet forums
and discussions where people are looking for software developers. Post
questions such as:
a) I am a software developer, where on the Internet can I locate
clients?
...But before you do that, read this thread:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=173534
Better yet, post a $2.00 question asking _us_ how to best phrase a
question to get a good answer, and what a fair price would be. It
would even be ok to ask who among the group of researchers would be
suited to answer, if you can't select someone from the thread linked
above. If you do request a certain researcher, do it in the TITLE of
the question.
13) Check out sites like this:
Software Market Resource
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/
..."The software marketing resource is rapidly becoming "the" place to
visit for information about software marketing, press releases,
registration services, newsgroups, and all of the resources needed to
help software developers be more successful. This resource is growing
at a brisk pace, with new money-making and money-saving ideas being
added daily..."
14) Get a disposable email address from hotmail for this one. Post
your resume at monster.com and hotjobs.com, and other similar sites.
The reason for the hotmail account is bots run around these sites and
you end up with tons of spam.
15) Add "Human Click" to your web site. Human Click is Live Chat,
where a person/surfer clicks, and a chat window opens up on both ends.
It's free for that basic use, but if you also want to be able to tell
when someone has ENETRED your web site, what page they are on, and you
want the alility to INITIATE a chat with them (very handy), then it
costs about $30.00 a month.
Human Click (changed to LivePerson.com)
http://www.humanclick.com
16) Be sure you're listed in the local yellow pages in BOLD. All you
need is a business license and phone number to be listed there.
17) You have excellent credentials. Be sure to state them on ALL your
advertising.
I will probably have more ideas so if you notice any comments or
clarifications in your email in regards to this question, be sure to
check back.
If I can clarify any of my ideas, please feel free to ask...
~~Cynthia
Search strategy: mainly personal experience and brainstorming,
augmented with an idea now and then with the keywords below:
"need a developer"
"software developers" resources marketing
developerd and "find clients" |
